Embedding Clay Flowers in Epoxy Resin

This tutorial from MinaevaJA, which is translated from Russian, shows us how to embed air-dry clay flowers in epoxy to create earrings like those shown above and below.   At the beginning of the tutorial it says "Part 3"....ignore that.   The full tutorial is on this one page.    First she shows us how to make a tiny flower with Deco Clay and then, after flower has dried and cured, it is lowered into a mold of epoxy resin and left to set.

The computerized translation to English is full of flaws but the accompanying step-by-step photos should give you enough information to try this unique technique with some of your own mini clay flowers!

 

Tutorial Tuesday

The round-up of tutorials posted this past week at my Air-Dry Clay Tutorial Directory starts with a


Paper Mache Buffalo

and then we have 3 more:

Lumina Clay Leaves

Divine Decadence Stump Doll

 How to Make a Strand of Clay Flowers

Tutorial Tuesday

Well, gosh, it's Tuesday again already!   Time to catch up on the newest tutorials posted at my AirDryClay Tutorial Directory.

How to Use a Doll Face Push Mold

Animal Print Safari Earrings

Make Your Own Petal Cutters

Make this Cute Jester Clown

Enjoy!

Meet a New Clay: Crafter's Clay

Those of us who have been aware of the pleasures of working with air-dry clay may soon by joined by the uninitiated due to Martha Stewart's new line of Crafter's Clay, molds and tools.   Believe it or not, many people are still under the impression that ALL air-dry clays are a kid's product. *sigh*  We know that is not so, don't we!  Just one look at the professional work of air-dry clay artists like Hannie Sarris, Guilherme

Tutorial Tuesday

That's me being surprised at
how long it's been since last post!!

Well, it seems I've taken a 6 month vacation from posting here at New Clay News! I didn't realize that it's been so long....my apologies, I've really been busy. Been involved in writing a book about the history of our town and spent some time in the hospital, among other things. 


The book draft is now at the publisher and my health is doing OK, so maybe I can get back into playing with clay and into the old routine of posting often. Let's start with catching up on some of the newest tutorials posted over at my Air Dry Clay Tutorial Directory.

Make a Clay Poppy

Make some of these colorful Poppies with air-dry clay. Step by step instructions, with photos, are provided by SifBeth. Although this demonstration shows how to make flowers using gumpaste, the techniques are very similar for air-dry clay and cold porcelain flowers. One difference is, if tutorial calls for edible glue, you can use regular glue with air-dry clay flowers. Gumpaste and cold porcelain are both used to create cake toppers....one is edible, one isn't!

If you don't have the proper petal cutter for this tutorial, you can make your own.   See some previous posts for Making Your Own Cutters  and a video with Free Cutting Tool Ideas.

How to Create Craft Porcelain Clay Roses

Clay Roses by Linda Peterson

As featured on Livin' the Creative Life, Linda Peterson shares how to create delicate roses from the air-dry clay called "Craft Porcelain"  (from Amaco).    This product is said to be similar to the homemade cold porcelain paste we've often mentioned .... but I'm told by those who've used both products that the

How to Make Clay Roses

Today we have a video slideshow from Lydia, demonstrating her method for creating cold porcelain roses.   The  instructional text in the video is written in 4 languages.   You may have to use the PAUSE button in the video player to stop slideshow long enough to read text.

How to Make Clay Carnations

Here's another step-by-step tutorial for creating clay Carnations.   This tutorial by Priya Nanthakumar uses air-dry clay to create the flowers.   About a year ago, we posted a Carnation tutorial which adapted a sugarcraft tutorial to air-dry clay.   The methods used are slightly different in each tutorial but both result in a quite realistic Carnation.

Here's a few tips when following this tutorial:
Author recommends oil paints to pre-tint the clay but acrylic paints may also be used.   Artists quality oils and acrylics will give you stronger reds and dark colors than craft paints.   If you want pastel pinks or yellows, craft acrylics could be used instead of the tube paints.

How to Make a Strand of Clay Flowers

This is a 2-part video from msedcolor (Simply Chic Lily) demonstrating how to make simple flowers and then connect them into a strand of flowers.

Tutorial: Clay Flower, Orchid

Video demo by zikomah  showing us how to create a clay orchid.

How to Make Clay Peony

 

This 4-part video demo from Mayen from Way Beyond Cakes shows us how to make a very realistic Peony flower.   She describes this as a "beginners" flower and demonstrates every step in the process in detail.   Mayen is crafting with gumpaste in this demo, but the process is the same for air-dry clay (just use white glue instead of edible glue).    The softer brands of air-dry clay or cold porcelain are usually the best choice for clay flowers.

Make a Clay Calla Lily aka Easter Lily

Video demo by Zikomah (from Morocco) showing us how to make a cold porcelain Lily (Calla Lily or Easter Lily).   Many of the soft air-dry clays work well for making this type of clay flower.

Make Miniature Calla Lily and Dandelion

I know that many fans of air-dry clay are also fans of dollhouse miniatures...so today we'll show you how to make some miniature flowers with air-dry clay.   Pedro Ramirez says the Dandelion and Calla Lily are two of the easiest flowers to make out of clay. He shows us how to make the miniature flowers in this video demo. I think he's using polymer clay for the Lily, but he also mentions creating the flowers

How to Wire a Spray of Clay Flowers

In the video below, Donna Lane shows us how to assemble our air-dry clay flowers into a spray or other arrangement.  This video demo features gumpaste flowers, but the process is exactly the same for air-dry clay flowers.

 If you haven't made any clay flowers yet, see menu bar above for 'Clay Flowers'.  There you'll find a list of different types of flowers you can make following some previously posted tutorials.   There are a number of different air-dry clays that work well for creating realistic flowers.    You'll want to have a light clay that will let you create very thin petals that will dry strong and a little flexible.   Homemade cold porcelain works well along with commercial brands such as Craft Porcelain, Lumina, Delight, DecoClay, Cloud Clay, Hearty Clay, and many other brands of soft, or semi-soft, clays.

How to Make Filler Flowers and Small Daisies

Quite often, the methods used for making air-dry clay flowers are exactly the same as making sugar paste flowers ....with one exception!  You can use glue and other non-edible materials with air-dry clay flowers.     In this video, Elaine MacGregor demonstrates 2 different kinds of simple flowers to make....a 5 petal flower and a daisy-type flower.

Where she mentions using gum arabic to glue sugar paste together, just use white glue instead.  (Elmer's or Aleene's will do nicely!)   Note how she uses a glass to protect her paste from drying out!  Good idea for clay too!

Video: How to Make Clay Leaves and a 5-Petal Flower

This first video below is from Ibenia at ColdPorcelainDesigns.com .  She shows us how to make an easy leaf with cold porcelain (or any other air-dry-clay).    The second video shows how to make a simple 5-petal flower.   This is a perfect project for beginners.  Use this idea for magnets, gift boxes & cake decorations, filler flowers, photo frame decorations, jewelry....etc,etc!





See more cold porcelain tutorials at Cold Porcelain Tutorials

Clay flowers as gift decoration

Have you ever thought of decorating a gift box with some clay flowers?   Two gifts in one!    Here's some ideas from Craft Ideas for All.

Tools & Materials for Cold Porcelain Flowers

Trynys Design shows us some of  the tools and supplies used to create her cold porcelain flowers.   I thought her canning jar method for clay storage was a great idea!    The materials shown in this video can also be used with many commercial brands of air-dry clay.  You'll have to experiment.  Some air-dry clays are just too sticky or too soft to hold any detail and trying to use "detailing" tools is pointless.

Tutorial: Clay Narcissus or Daffodil

Seems like it's been posts about clay flowers all week, so let's have one more for Friday.    One of my favorite flowers!    This air-dry clay or cold porcelain tutorial shows step-by-step photos to create a miniature Daffodil or Narcissus.  I'm not sure what the exact difference is between those 2 flowers other than one is larger than other.  Speaking of size, this tutorial creates miniature flowers but I bet the same process could create some realistic full size flowers!

This tutorial is on a Russian website, but there should be no language barrier....there's very little text...just photos!   Enjoy!